A cosmic web of galax­ies and diffuse gas perme­ates our Universe. This cosmic web glows through faint, but measur­able, Lyman-alpha emission of its neutral hydro­gen. This project aims to charac­ter­ize said cosmic web in cosmo­log­i­cal simula­tions of galaxy forma­tion. Connect­ing to upcom­ing obser­va­tional data sets, new pathways for our under­stand­ing of galaxy and struc­ture forma­tion emerge. 

This project studies the cosmic web and its obser­va­tion through the Lyman-alpha emission line. The cosmic web is the largest spatial struc­ture of our Universe and hosts the major­ity of all galax­ies, dark matter and diffuse gas. Lyman-alpha radia­tion is emitted in large amounts by the diffuse gas and as a conse­quence of star-forma­tion within galax­ies. In the past, bright galax­ies have been detected through this radia­tion, but in the near future we will also be able to detect the faint cosmic web itself. In a first step, we create a simula­tion model­ing struc­ture and galaxy forma­tion, Lyman-alpha emission and its radia­tive trans­fer. This allows us to predict obser­va­tional signa­tures of future surveys. By explor­ing differ­ent statis­ti­cal methods, we aim to find robust statis­tics linking the obser­va­tional signa­tures to their under­ly­ing matter and galaxy distri­b­u­tion. Our research helps to optimally design future obser­va­tional surveys and provide infer­ences from obser­va­tions to improve our under­stand­ing of struc­ture formation.

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